Cotton filter fly is a waste product accumulated in various locations in a cotton mill. It can be and is accumulated, for example, in the screen over condensors in the card room, in a filter box from the card room or picker room, and in air conditioning screens located in any of the processing areas of a cotton mill. It comprises a mixture of short cotton fibers and any airborne material, such as dust, leaf particles and the like, which might accumulate at the above-mentioned collection points. The filter fly is collected from the collection points, combined and compressed into a bale. It is commonly used as a mattress stuffing material.
Rubber compositions reinforced with fibers are well known in the art. The reinforcing fibers commonly include natural and synthetic fibers, such as cotton, rayon, nylon, polyester and the like.
Due to its low cost, it would be desirable to use cotton filter fly as a reinforcement for rubber compositions. In practice, however, cotton filter fly clumps together and is relatively impossible to disperse it uniformly throughout the rubber composition.
It has now been found that the dispersion of cotton filter fly in a rubber composition can be improved by crushing the cotton filter fly before adding it to the rubber composition.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a method for dispersing cotton filter fly in a rubber composition.
Another object of this invention is to provide a rubber composition comprising cotton filter fly as reinforcement therefor.
Other objects, aspects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from a reading of the following detailed description, the attached drawing and the appended claims.